Irish writers have had a disproportionately large impact on anglophone literature for centuries, and Donal Ryan continues that tradition with All We Shall Know, a deeply-rooted yet unmistakably modern narrative.

This new book by New Directions places side-by-side two separate and very different little novels by acclaimed (but still relatively obscure) Argentine surrealist author César Aira. This packaging decision was artistic as much as logistical, I think: there are, as the blurb points out, definite thematic continuities between The Little Buddhist Monk and The Proof, including corporate influence on culture, misogyny in various forms, and the interplay between the two.

Iron Moon should be required reading for anyone interested in poetry written from beyond safe or elite literary spaces, from places “closed off because the owners of these mines and factories have every incentive to conceal the conditions their workers deal with day and night,” as Goodman writes in her afterword.

This book is, as its cover suggests, unclassifiable, but it invites you to try: Underneath the title, standardized-test-style bubbles prompt you to choose "A) Fiction," "B) Nonfiction," "C) Poetry," "D) All of the above," or "E) None of the above."